Hug Goodbye!

Sean and his Godmother Philomien.

Tortoise

Wm and Mg play with the gigantic tortoise shell at the zoo with Philomien.

On the Playgound

William always seems to attract older women.

Nijmegen: At Home with Philomien and Mous

Philomien and Mous have a very beautiful home and garden. They have amazing artwork, carefully arranged, and often breakable. Here is a picture of William darting around the living room. He was soon placed on the couch in front of the television for the greater good! I am proud to report that we broke nothing!

Philomien, Sean's Godmother, and Margaret in the garden.

Mous and Margaret!

The Play Forest

Tres and Cor took us to this wonderful idea of a playground! It is a forest with winding paths and big sticks to make huts with.

The children ran wildly around playing with sticks and mud, hiding behind trees, and climbing up on tree trunks. Now, that is REAL fun! William LOVED the big pile of dirt surrounded by water. He pulled the long sticks up the hill, pretending they were cannons, and innocently lugged a cannon to each one of us. Jeremey used his sticks to make a bridge over the water moat. Why did the two boys, in such a large forest, always want the same sticks?

Sean's aunt Tres and proud grandmother of Jeremey and Kaelan.

Katy and Cor. We could only watch them play for so long before some of us needed a beer and some of us needed coffee. Luckily, this table overlooked a playground that happily occupied the children while we rested.

Chocolate Bunnies

Here is something cool we saw at the chocolate museum - the chocolate molds are rotated to make the chocolate spread evenly on all the parts of a hollow form! YUM!

At Tante Therese's House in Bavel, Holland

William and his second cousin Jeremey , age 5, played together wonderfully! We walked away and suddenly the living room was a disco!

Han in the back yard.

Tres.

The newest member of the family!! William's other second cousin: Kaelan Thielen! Welcome to the world! Thank you for falling asleep in my arms - I felt honored!

The relaxed new parents of Kaelan, Birgitta and Derek (Sean's cousin) on their way to a Harley motorcycle festival!

Katy, Birgitta, Jaap ( father of Jeremey and Sean's cousin), and Derek.

Notes: Okay, it's not that complicated. Jaap and Derek are sons of Tres, who is Sean's aunt and Oma's sister. This makes Jaap and Derek Sean's first cousins. They had children, Jeremey and Kaelan, who are Sean's first cousins once removed. For William, Jeremey and Kaelan are second cousins, the grandchildren of his great-aunt! Mysteries of life explained, once and for all!

Stairmasters

Nijmegen: Visiting Peter and Cinty

On Saturday, we visited with Sean's aunt and uncle in their wild and colorful garden of flowers.

William played with Ricardo, son of Hilda, the entire time! (Thanks, Ricardo! Hoe bevalt het nieuwe school?)

Peter en Cinty.

Haetelijk bedankt! We hebben genoten.

Mook, Holland

The next day, we stopped at this beach along an inlet of the Maas river to have a little picnic. I highly recommend the beach, it was lovely. I do not, however, recommend a picnic in the sand with children of the above age groups ( see above photograph). They didn't eat much and their fruit got all sandy...but they had a lot of fun playing in the sand!

Park in Neuss

After our big day in Koeln, we travelled North to overnight in a much smaller town called Neuss. In Neuss, we found some very beautiful and calm city parks. We feed the ducks bread and watched them as they swam sweetly to us from across the pond. We stopped feeding the ducks when they got out of the water and started flocking over the bridge toward us in one big moving swarm of hungry "buck-bucks" right out of a Hitchcock movie. Help! Nature!

William's First Photograph: Mistake or Fresh New Perspective?

...There's only so much the auto focus function can do to help!

For Suzanne

A bookstore in Cologne with a familiar last name.

Koelner Dom: Giving Thanks for Chocolate and Other Things

After the afternoon chocolate experience, we wanted to properly acknowledge the goodness and greatness of the Lord. A visit to the mighty Cologne Cathedral was just what we needed!

Sean got some breathtaking pictures of stained glass windows.

Margaret fell asleep in the dark and quiet, and Sean was able to focus on other babies for a moment.

We felt thankful for chocolate and much more.

For Dessert: The Chocolate Museum in Koeln

I think this is now my favorite museum ever. You wouldn't believe how much we learned about chocolate! Plus, there were free samples and a very very big gift shop dedicated to only one purpose.

Look at the machines! See the chocolates coming along the conveyor belt after they come out of the molds? Who eats the defective ones?

It's not just Curious George who goes to the Chocolate Factory!

Day Two: Koeln (Cologne)

We arrived in Koeln in our usual state, hungry. How lucky that we soon found ourselves sitting along the swollen Rhein river with this beautiful backdrop of old fishing houses...

eating matjes (herring) fillets...

... and tasting our first Koelsch beer ever. The Koelsch was a light and slightly sweet bubbly cold pils, a delightful accompaniment to an afternoon of travelling with young children.

Here we are, after the meal. William still looks backwards through his binoculars. He always sees dinosaurs or wolves that the adults just miss.

Margaret sees the dinosaurs.

Windmills: Not Just in Holland!

As we drove north in Germany, we saw more and more wind turbines creating energy in a sustainable way! Their modern forms rose majestically from the fields and forests, each turn a new direction for our planet.

First Stop: Heidelberg Castle

The first stop on our week-long tour of the Rhein valley and Holland was the Heidelberg Castle.

From the castle gardens, there is a beautiful view of the Neckar river.

We spent a lot of time playing in the beautiful gardens. Some of us had a lot of pent up energy to release after having spent a few hours in the car.

With children, you are always stopping to smell the flowers ( whether you want to or not!!). These ones smelled pretty good.

The Photographer

Sometimes I am so preoccupied with handing out snacks and drinks to the small demanding people in the family that I forget to take pictures that include Sean! I am grateful that Sean is such a good photographer, and I resolve to take more pictures of him...next time.

Allensbach Wild-und-Freizeit Park

Today we took our fussy children to an animal park near Konstanz.

They liked feeding the deer clover.

Look at this guy!

When William got tired of walking, Margaret pushed him for a while.

We saw bears!

And even went on a pony ride! I love rides that grown-ups get to go on too!

Then, we stopped taking pictures for the rest of the day because the family fussiness returned and lasted until bedtime. I love bedtime!